Blog Post number 1: Just start writing!

Yesterday, in the throes of the usual PhD student crises, I was watching a YouTube video on “How to write a paper in a weekend”. I don’t actually want to write my paper in a weekend, but I just needed some motivation and some advice to push through and resist the urge to delete my Overleaf document and GitHub repo forever.

The take-home message that stuck with me the most was “just write”. Just write stuff down, it doesn’t matter if the syntax is a mixture of different languages, if the ideas are completely inconsequential, or if there is just no good content. Just start writing.

That is actually good advice, even if I don’t usually struggle with the writer’s block; what I struggle with the most is worrying about the quality of what I write. Basically, I would like to be able to read what I wrote again without the strong urge of hiding in a corner ashamed of myself.

But that doesn’t really help with writing anything, let alone academic papers.

So, here we go, let’s start “just writing” with this blog post!

Some recent reads and music I’m liking

Some music is on repeat in my headphones while I spend the days on my little desk at Hunan University, in Changsha:

• Two albums by Chick Corea: “Now He Sings, Now He Sobs”, and “My Spanish Heart” (thanks to my pianist sister for letting me discover his music)
• The latest album by Little Simz, “Lotus”, which I’ve already listened to an insane amount of times
• Saint Levant’s album “DEIRA” (so jealous of my friend who’s going to his concert…)

I’ve also gotten into the habit of starting my work day by reading the Nature’s newsletter I receive in my inbox. I subscribed to Nature Briefing, Nature Briefing: Cancer, and Nature Briefing: AI & Robotics. Highly recommended, the writers are also super fun.

Books I’m slowly reading during the evenings and weekends are “Pedagogia Hacker” (Hacker pedagogy), by italian authors Davide Fant and Carlo Milani, and “Unmasking Autism”, by Dr. Devon Price. Another one is already on my readlist: “The sexual politics of meat”, by Carol J. Adams.

I’m in my essays era, please save me.

Send writing tips, album and book recommendations to luna.pianesi@gmail.com.

Thanks for reading!

Houhu International Art Area, Changsha, Hunan, China (中国长沙后湖国际艺术区).